[pilowsky]

Again in a cheap duplicate IMP's tournament, I get this hand

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Well, a solid 16 HCP - I have to bid 1NT!
My colleague the North robot of course transfers me to Spades. I was ready for this and bid 3NT. North had other ideas. 6NT.
West leads the ♥4
Here's dummy

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Here's what happened - I was a bit surprised the robots don't often return their partners leads! http://www.bridgebas...9381-1597136761
This was the high point - I managed a well-deserved 2nd last after this.

[AL78]

You make a completely distorted opening bid, try to take over the auction when it looks to be going pear shaped, and fluke a good result. Happens all the time, that is why there are pairs at my club that get 60+% one evening then 38% then next time. I think it is much better to play solidly and down the middle rather that try to find some Zia Mahmood master bid that will happen to work on the particular deal of the cards, unless you have the ability of Zia.

[nullve]

AL78, on 2020-August-11, 06:28, said:

I think it is much better to play solidly and down the middle rather that try to find some Zia Mahmood master bid that will happen to work on the particular deal of the cards, unless you have the ability of Zia.

Amen!

Spoiler

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[Huibertus]

What is the fun of bidding like this?

[aawk]

Well you got a good story to tell at the bar this time more often they will tell a story about you. A tip if you keep bidding like this never play for money and i bet the sharks will like you at the poker table.

[pilowsky]

Where is the fun in that?

This is a very interesting question. One that I am uniquely qualified to answer since I was raised by a family of psychiatrists and I am also a neuroscientist with a special interest in amines, including dopamine, serotonin and noradrenaline. These chemicals are found in the brain and are also known as the 'fun' neurotransmitters.

One of the first things I learned in psychiatry in medical school was that "the more amines you have, the happier you are". This was useful to me later as a pharmacologist. Whenever I wanted to know if a drug might have a positive or negative effect on 'affect' (posh medical word for mood) I would just check to see if that drug would raise or lower brain amines.
The Professor that told us that phrase also showed us a graph. The graph shows that the effective dose of antipsychotic drugs correlates with their affinity at the dopamine (D2) receptor).

All a bit esoteric I agree. What about fun? What is fun for one person is different from others.

Some people derive great solace, pleasure, comfort, perhaps fun, when there is extreme order in the universe. You may be familiar with seeing children that carefully line up objects in order of size and shape. The term for this is 'punding'. In and of itself no big deal, I do it myself sometimes. Everyone likes a bit of order in their universe from time to time.

Carried to extremes to the exclusion of everything else, it may be a problem.
Another type of 'fun' is extremely common in casinos. It is the reason BBO stays in business. Psychologists call it 'intermittent positive reward' - my poodles just love it.

Bridge is an ideal game for this because the element of chance and randomness introduced by the presence of other humans in the game means that even very weak layers (like me) can sometimes get a good score. That is at a tournament-wide level.
On a 'micro' level, one can sometimes get a hand where you know from experience that there is an outside chance of hitting the jackpot if bid or played in particular way.

It may not appeal to the 'punders' but it certainly appeals to the punters.


I'll leave the bar for the lawyers

[coliecam]

Amen..Sir Pilowsky..as an advanced? player who has played this game for 60 years, yes, if you can't have a bit of fun then what's the use. Opening 1 NT with 5 fairly solid spades and responding 2 diamonds to Stayman will almost guarantee a spade lead from the robots when you end up in 3NT. Fair is fair...the robots have lied to me often enough.